Rainbow Gets Girls Ready for Life!

Saturday March 9 was a great day for Concord Assembly. We started with an early morning meeting. Some of us weren’t too thrilled about having to roll out of bed on a Saturday morning to get to the hall by 9:30, but we still had a great turnout with 9 girls attending. Ashley managed to make it back from college and we had a surprise visit from Kat!

Meeting March 9

The meeting went well and, afterwards, the girls put together Curious George puzzles — only to find that one of the pieces was missing from each puzzle! They had to go on a scavenger hunt to find the missing puzzle pieces. Once found, Erica read her favorite Curious George story, “Curious George Goes to the Hospital.” It turns out that George had swallowed a piece of a puzzle, thinking it was candy, and had to go to the hospital.

Curious George Goes to the Hospital

After the meeting, most of the girls and Advisors continued on to P.I.E. Day in Natick to learn about food safety and nutrition. We had two guest speakers who were Food Technologists from The U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center. This organization is part of the Army’s one-stop soldier-support organization, responsible for researching, developing, fielding, and managing food, clothing, shelters, airdrop systems, and Soldier support items.

First, we learned about how the labs develop Meals Ready-to-Eat (MREs) for the soldiers that are nutritious, portable, and can last a long time without refrigeration. They even try to make them taste good! We also got to try samples of “tube food” that is specially prepared for Air Force pilots flying the U-2, a very high altitude reconnaissance aircraft. We tried the Apple Pie, Chocolate Pudding, Key Lime Pie, Truffle Macaroni and Cheese, and Pasta Bolognese. Yum! Erica especially loved the stuff, and got to take the leftovers with her — as long as she disposed of them before the 2 hour food safety limit was up. For more information and a video about Tube Food visit: http://science.dodlive.mil/2013/02/12/tube-food/

P.I.E. Day

Next, after some Pizza Pie, we learned about www.ChooseMyPlate.gov, the United States Department of Food and Drug Administration’s guidelines for healthy eating. Everyone was given a plate, and asked to divide it in to the proportions of vegetables, fruits, grains, and protein that we should strive to eat each day. Then, after making our best guesses, we learned that fruits and vegetables should make up half the plate, and grains and proteins the other half, as shown below. Dairy is also an important one of the 5 food groups. The speaker said we should try to make our meals include “all the colors of the Rainbow.” That sounds like something all of us should be good at!

Next, we headed off to the Massachusetts Rainbow roller skating party at Roll On America in Hudson. This was a fun event with about 130 people attending from 12 Assemblies across the state and 15 prospects participating! Mom Torrey came dressed for success in home-made pads to protect her elbows, knees, and, well, other areas. Girls had fun showing off their potential as installing soloists in the karaoke room, and it was great to just relax and have fun with our Massachusetts Rainbow sisters.

Everyone had a fun day, and we all went home exhausted — and very glad we’d started with that early morning meeting, rather than having to find the energy to hold the meeting after a full day of friendship, learning, and adventure!